


now would be the time

by tenebrism



Category: Boyfriend (Band), K-pop
Genre: Alternate Universe - Real World, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-12
Updated: 2015-02-12
Packaged: 2018-03-12 03:23:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,824
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3341726
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tenebrism/pseuds/tenebrism
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jeongmin copes with the dreadful tedium of a normal life.</p>
            </blockquote>





	now would be the time

**Author's Note:**

  * For [kurooing](https://archiveofourown.org/users/kurooing/gifts).



> an early valentine's day present for my lovely wife. 
> 
> i don't know what happened here, but it sure happened.

Jeongmin collapses face first on the couch, legs hanging off the side at a weird angle. He’s more exhausted than he has any right to be. His feet ache from standing all day as if he doesn’t do this, you know, every day. Today, he figures, his body has just called it quits. This is it for him; he’s never getting off this couch again.

He rolls around, digging in his pockets for his phone.

          > _hyung. come make me dinner_

There’s a delay of about 30 seconds before the reply:

          > _what? why_

          > _im dying_

          > _you’re not dying_.  
          Then, right after:  
           > _are you okay_

          > _nope. gonna die here. need delicious home cooked meal_

          > _cook it yourself_.

Hyunseong comes over anyway, because of course he does. He brings leftovers instead, but at the moment anything is more appealing than cooking himself, so Jeongmin accepts them happily.

“Mom says hi,” Hyunseong says, pouring himself a glass of water. “She also told me to look through your cabinets and make sure you were eating something other than instant noodles, but…”

Jeongmin makes a face. He has enough moms; his own visits pretty often, since she thinks he doesn’t come home enough. Plus whenever Minwoo comes over he makes disgusted faces all around the apartment and ends up cleaning the kitchen or something. “We have food. I’m just not, like, really into the idea of remaining upright right now, y’know?”

Hyunseong starts laughing, kind of inexplicably at the moment, but after a split second Jeongmin is laughing too, because whatever. He’s so tired - he doesn’t know what he’s laughing at, but he’s pretty sure it’s hilarious.

He eats the leftovers like they’re the most delicious thing he’s ever tasted.

 

  

 

He’s not going to say it out loud, but Jeongmin is grateful for the company, especially since his roommate is out for the night. With Kwangmin gone, the whole apartment is too quiet, the absence of an incessantly babbling voice kind of depressing. So. It’s good.

Jeongmin doesn’t like being alone, anyway. He feels more real outside of his own head than in it, and talking to yourself is so boring.

“I need a vacation,” he announces, digging his feet into the side of Hyunseong’s thigh at the other end of the couch. “Let’s go somewhere.”

Hyunseong grins. “Yeah? Where?”

“I dunno.” Jeongmin screws his face up in a show of contemplation. “Let’s go to Europe. London. Paris. Rome. Let’s do it.” Honestly they all kind of blend together, flashes of landmarks and foreign languages and television clips. He’s never paid that much attention or given any place that much thought, but the idea sounds nice. It sounds - different. Elsewhere.

Hyunseong just looks at him, then looks at his knees, still smiling. “Well,” he says, “we could go to the beach one day or something.”  

“You’re boring, hyung.” Jeongmin is so tired, but he doesn’t want to sleep, he wants to do something. It’s getting late, though, and he has work in the morning. “But yeah. Totally.”

Hyunseong doesn’t really say anything. After a moment, Jeongmin continues, “Or - _or_ we could go to Europe. Have an adventure.”

That gets a real laugh. “Whatever you want, Jeongmin. I’ll go.”

 

 

 

They don’t go to Europe. Obviously. They don’t go to the beach, either, because their schedules manage to line up so that the two of them don’t have the same day off for three weeks in a row. Life continues as usual.

“I need a new job,” Jeongmin says, leaning against the counter.

Minwoo stops half-glaring at a pair of girls wrecking a shirt display long enough to raise an eyebrow at him. “You’ve been here for five months.” 

“I know, but -”

“If you quit, I swear I will never do anything for you ever again.” Minwoo looks away and sighs. “Also, I’ll punch you in the face. One second.” He walks over to the now abandoned and slightly destroyed table and starts folding. Jeongmin probably would have left it like that for another half hour, at least.

“I can’t do it.” Jeongmin sighs. “I should be doing something more - exciting? Fun? Less soul-sucking.”

“Join the club, hyung.” For a second, Minwoo almost looks sympathetic. “Honestly, if this is how you’re going to be now, you probably should quit. We only keep you around because you’re usually slightly less of a zombie than everyone else.”

Jeongmin sticks his tongue out and idly rubs a speck of dust from the register screen, leaving a thumbprint in its place. “I don’t wanna be a zombie.”

“You’re not a zombie, alright? Stop pouting, it’s weird.”

Jeongmin just pokes out his bottom lip.

 

 

 

To prove that he is not a zombie, he throws a party.

Or - something that passes for one. It’s very last minute and the only people he can get to come are Hyunseong and a handful of people from work (he’d even invited their manager, but Donghyun had said something about how he didn’t think he should be hanging out with his employees and also they were all annoying, so Jeongmin had told him he was kidding anyway and Donghyun had rolled his eyes and made Jeongmin sweep the whole store twice for no reason).

But, as far as Jeongmin is concerned, it’s a party.

Hyunseong is drunk. Not that that’s difficult to achieve - Jeongmin hasn’t been keeping tabs on how much he’s been drinking, but it can’t have been much. Hyunseong being a hilarious lightweight has been a running joke since he first started drinking in the first place, but it never stops being funny.

Also, Hyunseong is singing. At least three people are singing over the music playing, but Hyunseong, aided in confidence by alcohol, is louder than everyone else; he sends one poor innocent note to its death an octave too high and falls over on the couch, mumbling the rest of the song. Youngmin has stopped arguing with Minwoo (over something Jeongmin can’t even keep track of) to applaud, and Jeongmin is laughing so hard he can’t really resist when Hyunseong reaches out and pulls him closer. 

Jeongmin stumbles, only maintaining his balance well enough to land on his knees on the edge of the couch without face-planting on the floor. He shifts; Hyunseong, still lying on his side, wiggles around until Jeongmin’s sitting in front of him and he can put his hand between Jeongmin’s shoulders, on his hip, on top of his head before he realizes there’s no comfortable way to cuddle in this position.

His hand ends up tugging absently at the hem of Jeongmin’s shirt while the other rests curled beside his thigh, and Jeongmin looks down at him, all red-faced and smiling. “You’re not singing,” Hyunseong says.

“I don’t even like this song,” Jeongmin says, pointing somewhere in the direction of where Kwangmin probably is, in an attempt to blame him. But Hyunseong is pouting at him - sort of, attempting to at least - and Jeongmin has also been drinking enough that he doesn’t really care, so he sings.

He laughs when he does it, and Hyunseong looks happy, and he’s - he’s still looking at Jeongmin, and Jeongmin is still looking at him, and when the music stops he’s left with Hyunseong’s hands, still, half-touching him, and Hyunseong staring at him like he’s the most amazing thing he’s ever seen. Jeongmin feels a little like his face is going to explode, so he sits there for a second, frozen, before he rolls gracelessly onto the floor and lies on his back, demanding that someone, anyone, do something interesting.

 

  

 

“Jeongmin.” 

“Huh?” Jeongmin realizes after a moment that he’s been staring into a box of belts for who knows how long. He looks up. Donghyun is staring down at him, looking supremely unimpressed, but that’s nothing new. “What’s up?”

For a second, Donghyun continues glaring at him, then sighs. “As your boss, and a caring authority figure in your life, I feel like I should probably ask if you’re okay, or if there’s some reason you’ve been more incompetent than usual lately.”

“Um.” It’s a good question. Everything’s seemed a little harder lately - a little more tedious and draining - but he’s fine. Jeongmin doesn’t know if he has an answer, besides _I’m so bored I think I’m going to die_ , which he doesn’t think Donghyun will accept. “Sorry?”

“So that’s a no? Good.” Donghyun pokes the cardboard box with his foot. “Now, quit slacking.”

Jeongmin nods and unfolds the packing list, peering blankly at the numbers. That’s a lot of belts. “Hey,” he calls to Donghyun, halfway out of the room. Donghyun turns around to look at him. “Do you… like… enjoy-” Jeongmin waves his hands around. “This?”

“What? Do I enjoy what?”

“The store. Your job.” Jeongmin shrugs. “Life?”

Donghyun stares at the ceiling for a second. “I enjoy it a lot more when you’re not asking me stupid questions. If you’re having an existential crisis, do it off the clock.”

Well, he can’t say he was expecting a better answer. He isn’t sure why he asked in the first place.

 

 

 

The second time, the question is just as stupid:

“Are you happy?”

Hyunseong blinks at him. His look of surprise is probably because he’s been suddenly distracted from whatever anime he’s forcing Jeongmin to watch with him, but Jeongmin knows he wasn’t expecting the question. Neither was Jeongmin. He just - he’s never thought about it before, in regards to himself or anyone else. He’s never thought to ask.

After a moment, Hyunseong replies, “Yeah.” He makes a thoughtful face. “Why wouldn’t I be?”

Jeongmin shrugs. “Just wondering,” he says. For a second, he considers asking _why? What makes you happy?_ Because Jeongmin feels like he’s missing something, and he’s fine, he really is, but that doesn’t seem like enough. He doesn’t ask, though, because he thinks he knows what Hyunseong would say. He’d probably have a whole list of things. His family, tonkatsu, Jeongmin.

Jeongmin can pretty much hear him saying that already. He wouldn’t even question it.

 

 

 

Youngmin asks him if he’s okay at work. Well - sort of. Mostly he says, “Hyung, you’re being really weird this week.” 

It’s like no one can deal with Jeongmin being slightly less exuberant than normal. He doesn’t talk _all the time_ , he wants to explain; he’s not Kwangmin - he at least waits until he has something to say. And if he isn’t laughing as much, maybe it’s because no one around him is being funny. He doesn’t say that. Instead, he says, “Well, I’m _having_ a weird week.” Or three.

“Hmm.” Youngmin does look sort of concerned, or at least interested. “What’s up?”

“Dunno.” It sounds stupid when he says it out loud, anyway. Nothing’s up. Nothing has changed. He suspects he’s just not entertaining himself enough to keep from thinking about things. 

Thinking is annoying. He realizes now why he always tried to avoid it. He’s trying to hang this shirt, but he forgot what he was doing halfway through and just unbuttoned it all the way.

“Do you… need anything?” Youngmin looks like he’s not sure if he’s supposed to ask, or if he actually wants to. But Youngmin is nice, really, just a little awkward. Jeongmin appreciates the gesture.

He shakes his head. There’s music playing in the store, but otherwise, it’s silent, no customers; it makes Jeongmin feel even weirder about not having much of a response. “I can’t think of anything,” he says. That’s the problem.

He considers that for a second - maybe it’s also the answer. Kind of.

“Thanks, Youngmin,” he says, smiling, and starts buttoning again.

 

 

 

When Hyunseong answers the phone, Jeongmin replies firmly, immediately, “Hyung, we’re going to the beach.”

“Okay,” Hyunseong says, then takes a moment, probably to question why he’s agreeing. “Wait -” 

“Don’t ask why,” Jeongmin says, cutting him off. “It’s there, and we can.” 

“Yeah, of course. But - you do know it’s pouring rain, right?” 

“I know! It’s fine.” 

Hyunseong is quiet for a second. “Alright,” he says. Jeongmin never doubted him, anyway.

 

 

 

When they were younger, Jeongmin thought it was annoying, the way Hyunseong never wanted to do anything without him. He was always around, a little too touchy, and Jeongmin never minded hugs or anything, exactly, but Hyunseong was just a lot all at once, and for the longest time, he didn’t seem to have anyone to expend his endless cuddle energy on but Jeongmin. It used to make him uncomfortable, but he got over it.

Mostly, after that, he only ever pulled away for show, or when he felt like being dramatic. 

Sometimes he feels bad about it, though Hyunseong never seems bothered. It’s just - Hyunseong has never been great at making friends on his own, even though he’s the nicest guy in the world and people love him when he actually talks to them. He has a pretty solid group of friends now, considering he basically hangs out with the same people Jeongmin does, but - 

It used to feel like such a burden, feeling like the only person Hyunseong really had. Back then, Jeongmin was used to having like a million friends at once, and being that close to one person in particular was weird. He gets it now. He’s grateful. He just - he never says it, because it would be awkward and he doesn’t say shit like that, but - he thinks his life would be a lot worse if Hyunseong wasn’t in it.

(It still feels heavy, in a different way, like Hyunseong thinks he’s this incredible person that he isn’t, but he also doesn’t think Hyunseong would ever be disappointed in him, so - it’s okay.)

 

 

  

Rain kind of ruins the whole beach experience, but Jeongmin doesn’t care. He abandons his umbrella and his shoes and leaves the hood of his coat down. Hyunseong looks harried but amused, and Jeongmin smiles at him because he can’t help it.

Barefoot, soaking wet, sand between his toes, Jeongmin thinks this is the first stupid, pointless thing he’s done in forever, and maybe that’s why it feels like the best idea he’s ever had.

 

 

  

They don’t stay on the beach long, because Jeongmin gets bored and cold pretty quickly despite it being his brilliant idea. Instead, they end up in a coffee shop, Jeongmin dripping all over the place. He almost regrets it, but not really.

“You’re in a good mood,” Hyunseong says, his chin resting in his hand.

“Eh.” Jeongmin shrugs. He is, though.

Hyunseong knows. He can always tell, somehow, when Jeongmin’s faking it. “I’m glad you’re feeling better,” he says, smiling. “That was starting to get…”

“You were worried about me.” Jeongmin stretches, leaning back in his chair. “And I’m flattered, but -”

“I knew you’d be fine,” Hyunseong says, shaking his head. “You were just being dramatic.”

“Hey!” Jeongmin accidentally smacks the table. Hyunseong is starting to giggle - the really dumb, squeaky one - and Jeongmin continues pouting. “Whatever,” he says, and Hyunseong is quiet again, but not looking away. 

In the spirit of being spontaneous and stupid, Jeongmin adds, “Stop looking at me like you want to kiss me.”

Hyunseong opens his mouth, closes it, and lifts his coffee to his mouth too quickly. Jeongmin laughs.

 

 

 

Halfway through Jeongmin peeling off his jacket, Hyunseong bends to kiss him without touching him. It’s soft and quick and Jeongmin is so startled that he starts laughing. Hyunseong’s face is getting progressively redder and contorted into something that’s probably intended to be confidence, or defiance, but mostly just looks like he’s going to pass out.

“What - don’t,” he sputters, looking everywhere but at Jeongmin’s face. “You said it! I was just - I didn’t mean -”

And Jeongmin really doesn’t know what to say to that. He could say a lot of things, like: _took you long enough_ , or something. But that’s not right, because while Jeongmin has to admit he’s thought about it before, it was always a maybe, a not quite comfortable idea. It wouldn’t have been right then, but now it is - just right.

So he doesn’t say anything. Instead, he backs Hyunseong up against the door and kisses him back, and Hyunseong makes a surprised noise before he settles into it. Jeongmin is trying not to laugh, not because it’s funny, but because - it’s nice. He just feels like laughing.

“Hang on,” Hyunseong says, and Jeongmin sighs, props his chin on Hyunseong’s shoulder. “Should we - are we -” 

He gets it. Maybe this is a big thing, this is where he’s supposed to think about all the implications and complications that come with falling for your best friend, but it isn’t like that. There’s no soaring, romantic music; there’s no drama here. It’s good. Comfortable. He isn’t afraid of anything.

“Stop thinking so much, hyung,” Jeongmin says, taking Hyunseong’s face in his hands and squishing his cheeks together. “It’s not good for you.”

“Fine,” Hyunseong laughs, and it’s silly and familiar and perfect, and Jeongmin doesn’t think he needs anything new after all. 


End file.
